Colours of the New Beginning
by Buzzing Spontaneity
Summary: Katie all but fell apart when Fred died, but she kept holding on. She held on for 70 years, and she finally got her reward. A response to the Crayola Colors Challenge. Fratie. Rated T because I'm more paranoid than a ninja wearing a pink floral dress.
1. Pink Carnation

**A/N: **This is my response to Written Sparks' the Crayola Colors Challenge, mine being Carnation Pink, Hot Magenta, Electric Lime, Violet and Outer Space. It's somewhat odd, but please read and review :)

* * *

I stared into the sky. Here, it was beautiful. There was nothing blocking the stars, and I stared into the colours as they drifted between each other. It felt strange, as if I was flying, I embraced the feeling, as if it was something the world would be happy about. I was flying upwards, and I didn't even feel the slight inclination to look back. I knew there had been something strange about the scene as soon as I lay down on the ground. My joints had been stiff, but I had felt comfortable as soon as I touched the grass. My eyes had searched the sky, wondering if he was there with me.

Of course, he was. I could sense him smiling down at me, like I had every time I came here.

He would never leave me alone.

I smiled as I thought about it. Fred had always let me be who I am. He had always supported me because of it. I loved him for it.

As I stared into the colour of the sky I was so softly floating towards, my eyes picked out one colour. It was a pale pink, the colour of a carnation. It brought out an entire range of thoughts, but the most prominent was a memory. It had been my first Quidditch match at Hogwarts.

_I stared forwards, somewhat terrified by the multitude of people that had turned up for our game. I was pale and silent, I could tell. I gulped, my terror going completely unnoticed by the rest of the team. I mean, Harry Potter's first game was the same one as mine. Of course the team would be more concerned about him – he was both the saviour of the wizarding world, and a year younger than me. Plus he had never even heard about Quidditch until a month or so ago; it wasn't exactly surprising that everyone was paying more attention to him._

_Suddenly, one of the Beaters turned around, a grin on his face. Fred Weasley, I think his name was. It was hard to tell the difference between him and his twin, George, but I think I got them the right way around now._

"_Aww, nervous are we?" he asked cheekily. I couldn't even summon the courage to glare at him. I was too distracted by the massive crowd cheering in the teams as we began to walk on to the pitch. He was walking backwards, still talking to me._

"_Don't worry, you'll be fine," he whispered as the two captains shook hands. I nodded weakly, and he frowned at my lack of response. Taking out his wand, he waved it, muttering something, and a small, slightly bedraggled pink carnation appeared. I raised my eyebrows, and he grinned sheepishly, holding it out to me._

"_For luck," he said. I smiled, and took the flower. We won the match. I spent the next seventy years keeping that flower in a glass cube. I had it with me every time I won something, and I began to believe it actually did bring me luck._

_I regretted it all my life when I left it at home at the Battle of Hogwarts._

_I spent years convinced that if I had it, I might not have lost Fred._

A smile tugged at my lips as I remembered. I felt the small glass cube on the chain around my neck at that moment. I had never quite given up on it. It had brought me luck. It was going to come with me.


	2. Hot Magenta

When I was floating upwards, no thoughts crossed my mind as to whether people would miss me wherever I was going. All I knew was that I had spent enough time on Earth, growing old, never really living, but instead surviving through Angelina. I knew that she had briefly dated Fred during Hogwarts, and it had taken months of cajoling and encouraging and eventually blackmail until both she and George finally admitted that Fred would want them to be happy – there had never really been the same connection between her and Fred anyway. It was obvious that she and George were meant to be, but it still took forever for them to realise it.

My eyes continued searching the skies. It had always amazed me how the sky was in so many colours all at once. I stared into the light as tendrils of colour swirled between the stars, gently caressing each other, comforting themselves. It must have been lonely, up in the sky for thousands of years, but they didn't seem to reflect that. They had each other.

Just like I had Fred.

I picked out a rich pink, a beautiful magenta. It was exactly the same hot magenta that had been on my dress for the Yule Ball, all those years ago.

_I had never really admitted to myself that I had feelings for Fred. He had spent his whole life at Hogwarts being my friend, but not loving me. It was almost depressing. But when the Yule Ball came around in my fifth year, I couldn't help but hope that he would ask me._

_He asked Angelina. Of course, this meant I went through a sort of pathetic wreck phase that lasted around a week, and Angelina felt really uncomfortable about dating Fred, and they broke up a few days after the ball. Angie later admitted that it was partly because of me – but not in a bad way. I made her realise that Fred didn't like her like he liked me, and she didn't like him that much either. Apparently it all came from the dress I wore when I went to the ball with George._

_He knew I was miserable. It was fairly obvious, if I'm honest. He had known for ages that I had liked Fred as more than a friend, so he asked if I would go with him – as friends. I went with Angie and Alicia to get our dresses; I had got over my jealousy of Angelina for long enough to enjoy the trip. But the dress I had chosen was the dress that changed everything._

_It was strapless, falling to about my knees, and a very deep, dark pinky-purple, almost black. You wouldn't have noticed that it wasn't actually black if it wasn't silk. Every place the light hit it, it shone in hot magenta. It was just on that brink of style that was so close to sounding hideous that it was actually stunning. I was in love with it as soon as I saw it._

_That night at the ball, I danced with George, had fun with my friends, and occasionally glanced at Fred – but I never once got jealous. I never even noticed that he had been watching me too, later coming up to me and saying I looked beautiful. I thanked him politely, but never realised that what he was actually saying was some sort of hint that he was actually seeing me as a girl for once, not just a friend. It would have made my night so much better._

I still have that dress. Fred told me I looked beautiful wearing it, so I never got rid of it. When I moved out of my parents' house a few years later, he helped me pack and saw the dress. He asked why I still had it, and I told him. He told me right then he had never loved me more.

I continued getting closer. I smiled. It may have been the last time I was going to touch the earth, feel the sun on my face, or live an earthly life, but I was more excited about seeing Fred again. I loved him, and I had done for seventy three years. I would rather never see the world again than never see him. I kept smiling as the sky got closer.


	3. Electric Lime

I continued flying through the sky as if I were being lifted. It was the most relaxing journey I had ever taken, and I couldn't help but be excited by the change I was about to face. For seventy years, I had never really moved on – dating, of course, becoming involved in relationships, but never really getting over Fred. I came out to that hill all the time. For some inexplicable reason, it always cooled me down, just like Fred always did. Maybe it was because I could always sense Fred when I was there.

I continued absorbing the colours I could see. An interesting green flashed through the different shades of pink and purple occasionally. It was some sort of electric lime colour. It made me smile, bringing back memories of when Fred and George's experiments had gone wrong, and how that had changed my life.

_It was my fifth year, long after the Yule Ball. It must have been at least May. I had yet to work out that Fred loved me, and it was depressing me somewhat. I could only take so much of being around him, but when I wasn't near him, I craved it. I was brooding in the corner of the common room with Angelina and Alicia, lying on my back on the floor while both of whom were trying to convince me to tell him how I felt._

"_It's Fred, Kate. It's not like he's going to murder you or something," Alicia was saying. "You seriously fancy the crap out of him, so it's not exactly as if everyone is going to side with him if he takes it badly. Even _George_ knows and is on your side, and he's the thickest and least romantic person I know." I just mumbled something incoherent. I was doing that a lot._

"_Somehow I doubt he'd appreciate that, Leesh," said Angelina, smiling. It was incredible the way she'd moved on with very little bother. Fred was, once again, just her friend._

_I muttered something unintelligible. Suddenly the portrait hole opened, and the common room filled with raucous laughter. I couldn't be bothered to turn and see what the fuss was about until an upside down, grinning freckled face appeared right in front of mine. I physically couldn't stop the smile that lit up my face, and a shout of laughter escaped from my mouth._

_Fred's face was electric green._

_It was the most ridiculous combination I had ever seen – bright red hair and a lime green face. I just sat laughing for about ten minutes, while everyone else was rushing up to try and find out what on earth had happened. Fred's grin never faltered as he stood over me, watching me emit fresh peals of laughter every time I opened my eyes._

"_Fred..." I finally choked out. "What... did you... _do_?" He just kept grinning at me, and George explained. I had to hold back more laughter as I noticed that George was exactly the same colour._

"_Experiment went wrong," he said shortly, a grin that matched Fred's plastered across his face._

"_Merlin, you guys are idiots," I said happily, bursting into more laughter. "Do you know how to change it back? Not that you should – green suits you – but are you stuck like that forever, or not?"_

_Fred frowned slightly. "There is, but it is honestly the most clichéd solution in the _world_," he said. "We have to be freaking _kissed_." I just burst out laughing again._

"_How did you work that out?" asked Alicia. George just shrugged._

"_This is the sort of stuff you have to work out from the information you've got. Come on, give us a kiss," he said cheekily, offering his cheek. Alicia laughed and kissed it, and I was too caught up in who would kiss Fred that I failed to see George casting a spell from my position on the floor._

"_My turn!" cried Fred, but Alicia shook her head, smiling._

"_Nope. I already kissed one Weasley today – I think if I kiss another, I may catch a disease," she said, and Angelina also sat shaking her head, for obvious reasons._

_Fred pouted. "Katie?" I pretended to think about it for a second, even though my brain was screaming "kiss him you pillock!"_

"_Fine," I eventually said, and Fred offered his cheek. I went to kiss it, but he moved so I caught him on the mouth. Neither of us pulled away, and my eyes closed and I completely forgot about the people around us as pure ecstasy coursed through my veins. I was finally discovering that what I wanted to be there actually was. That is, until George started wolf-whistling._

"_Shut up George," said Fred shortly, pulling away, and I opened my eyes to glare at the Weasley twin I wasn't kissing. But instead, I saw that Fred's face was still green. I raised my eyebrow. He grinned sheepishly._

As it had turned out, that whole thing was a plot the others had come up with to get me to snog Fred. We started dating pretty much there and then, and we were still together when the final battle came around. As I continued flying upwards, my smile faltered for a second, but I ignored it. I would see him again soon.


	4. Violet

I never questioned that I would see Fred again, all through my life. I knew it would happen one day. I knew that he would wait. We loved each other, and I knew that wherever I was headed, I would see him once more.

My eyes were suddenly drawn to one of the other colours in the sky. It was a beautiful, rich violet. It was stunning, and tears filled my eyes as I recognised it from the saddest day of my life.

_I stared at my reflection, tears pouring down my face. Everyone would think that the day he died would be the worst day of my life, but it was the funeral. At the funeral, you are forced to remember. And that's exactly what I was stuck doing. Every single nice thing about Fred, every time he had said a sweet thing, his funniest moments – everything was pouring back into plain view._

_He had always told me that I couldn't wear black if he died. Heck, he even told me right before the Battle of Hogwarts – he said that if he died, I was to not wear black to his funeral. I haven't worn black since. It makes me remember that moment._

_I was wearing violet. My dress was a bright violet colour. It made me cry to see it, but I wore it anyway. I still have it. It may have been the worst day of my life, but I still want to remember it. I walked into the room, and I could feel accusing eyes pointing towards me from black-clad mourners. _

_It wasn't fair. That's all I could think. I had been expressly told by the man I was in love with what he wanted in case he died. And he had._

_And people were angry with me for it._

_Only the George knew what Fred had asked of me, as he had always told his twin to do the same thing. He was also heeding Fred's words – the entire family was looking at us oddly as I took a seat with George. We must have looked a right state; apart from his parents, we were probably the people who would miss Fred the most. And there we were, wearing violet and red, completely disregarding normal funeral policy._

_But it felt good._

_Those people, those ones who were staring at us so critically, as if we were disrespecting his memory – they didn't know a thing. We were honouring his life._

_And as I thought that, I knew that I would never move on._

_I honestly felt like I was falling apart at the seams all through the time there were people talking about how wonderful he was – simply because they were using the past tense. I felt I was the only one there who actually realised that Fred wasn't gone. He just moved on in his story before the rest of us._

_I could only wish that I could catch up with him._

As I stared up at the sky, watching the colours merge and flash and swirl for the last time in my mortal life, I knew that I was catching up with him.


	5. Outer Space

I was suddenly in the light, in the soaring colours, and the brightness was beautiful, but I knew I had to close my eyes. I don't know how I knew, I just knew.

So I closed my mortal eyes for the last time.

As I went through, as I kept flying upwards, I kept smiling. I was finally catching up with Fred, and I knew that when I opened my eyes again, he would be there, waiting.

And he would be smiling, like he did all his life.

I finally sensed I had stopped, and I blinked, surrounded by the light once more.

"You didn't half take your time, Kate."

I didn't have to look to find out who it was. I just smiled, and I was finally content. I didn't look back to Earth, to where my body lay on the top of that hill; I looked to Fred – he looked exactly the same as he had done all those years ago. I looked down at myself, just to see if I was the same. I wasn't. I was eighteen once more.

"Merlin, it feels so _good_ to move and not _ache_," I said, doing the Twist where I stood, and looked up at Fred. He was still smiling, but he had one eyebrow raised.

"I missed you," I said suddenly, standing completely still. He grinned happily at me, and wrapped me in his arms. The smile on my face wouldn't leave. I never registered how much I had missed him until right now. Right when I had him back.

"I missed you too," he whispered in my ear, and I was comforted by the way he had to bend down to speak to me – I had never forgotten.

"You're a _prick_!" I shouted suddenly, and he gazed at me, bewildered as I whacked him around the head. "You had to go and bloody _die_, didn't you? You could have just got over the fact that Percy had made a joke and got Rookwood _before_ he got you, but _no!_ You're such a freaking _idiot_ that you had to go and get yourself _killed_, and I had to survive for _seventy years_ without you! George was bloody lucky – he got to see you again ten years ago, and then Angie died last year, so I'm betting they've already gone, but _I_ had to wait _seventy fucking years-_" I was cut off as he suddenly pressed his lips to mine. My knees went weak, and I fell in love with him all over again.

"You know, I didn't exactly _want_ to abandon you," he said, his eyes twinkling as he pulled away. "And I wouldn't worry about Rookwood – I gave him a good kick in the nuts when he turned up." I had to grin at that.

"Next time, don't die."

"You know there isn't going to _be_ a next time, don't you?" he asked, still grinning.

"Well, duh. Where are we going, anyway?" I asked curiously.

"I call it outer space," he said, shrugging. "Outside of life, but inside of thought. It's where everyone goes. Some of the others are waiting on the other side – I promised I'd meet them there," he continued, and we both smiled.

"I guess we'd better catch up then," I said happily.

So we went on. We didn't know exactly where, but we did know that it didn't matter – this time, we had each other.


End file.
